BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- China's cultural industry is embracing a golden era of fast development, said Luo Shugang, minister of culture and tourism, when briefing lawmakers on a report Wednesday.
The report on cultural industry development was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for review at its ongoing bimonthly session.
The cultural industry has been making increasing contributions to the country's national economy, and proved itself as a new engine to the economic growth, said Luo.
MORE HIGH-QUALITY CULTURAL PRODUCTS
China saw improved quality and an increasing number of cultural products in 2018, said Luo.
In 2018, China produced over 1,000 movies, and a total of 323 TV series were finished producing and granted distribution licenses. The country's box office raked in 60.9 billion yuan (about 9 billion U.S. dollars) last year, according to the report.
China now ranks first in the world in book publishing, TV series production and broadcasting. As the world's second largest film market, China also has the largest number of film screens.
The report also showed that, between 2012 and 2018, the number of different types of book publications rose from 414,000 to 519,000 and the number of periodical types increased to about 10,139.
From 2015 to 2017, China produced a total of 4,499 original plays, and the number of performances staged by art groups nationwide raised from 2.1 million to 2.9 million, it said.
Winners of the Tiantan Award for Best Visual Effects for movie "The Wandering Earth" celebrate during the closing ceremony of the ninth Beijing International Film Festival in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)
BOOMING INDUSTRY
The cultural industry has become increasingly important in national economy.
China saw 522,100 newly registered cultural enterprises in 2018, an increase of 6.9 percent from the previous year, said Luo.
The number of cultural firms reached 3.09 million by the end of 2018, accounting for 8.9 percent of the total businesses across the country, Luo added.
The added value of the Chinese cultural industry totaled 3.47 trillion yuan in 2017, accounting for 4.23 percent of GDP, up 12.8 percent from the previous year.
More people were involved in the booming industry. In 2017, nearly 21.4 million people were employed in the cultural industry, compared with some 8.73 million in 2004.
People visit the exhibition of New Vision of Chinese Art 2018 in Beijing, capital of China, March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Luo Xiaoguang)
EXPLORING OVERSEAS MARKET
China also sees growing cultural trade. The total foreign trade volume of cultural products and services reached 137 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 8.3 percent from 2017, according to Luo.
Copyright export grew from 9,365 items in 2012 to 13,816 items in 2017, and sales revenue of China-developed online games in overseas markets reached 9.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 15.8 percent from 2017.
China has also designated 13 national cultural export bases in a bid to facilitate cultural trade, Luo said.
